Google is one of the most popular search engines in the world. Millions of travelers look for their next trip and accommodation on Google every day. So, displaying your hotel on Google will drive more guests to your hotel’s website.  But how to drive more direct bookings using Google’s solutions? What are the best practices for your hotel? Read how you can increase your bookings with Google’s solutions.    Travel Trends & Insights    The past two years have been challenging for the travel industry, many actors have to revisit how they approach their businesses. Understanding demand is critical to be able to reemerge stronger. Looking at research trends, Google gathered 3 key insights:  There’s increasing demand from consumers who, despite potential limitations on leisure and business travel, continue to research their next trip. Travel patterns have evolved due to the pandemic: domestic travel is still favored for now, with a higher interest in road-trips, vacation rentals, and outdoor recreation than ever before.  Travel recovery is here, with restrictions easing on all fronts. Google is confident that recovery will ultimately get travel back to or surpass pre-pandemic levels.   How to drive direct bookings with Google’s solutions?  Google has 3 products online to help hoteliers drive more direct bookings.  #1 Understand Hotel Search  Hotel search on Google is a search experience for travelers looking for specific hotel information. Both Business Profile and Free Booking Links show up in hotel searches.  #2 Business Profiles on Google  Business profile is a free service provided by Google that enables hoteliers to feature their properties to Google users.  #3 Free Booking Links The feature has been launched in 2021 to allow hoteliers to publish their real-time rates and availability on Google in order to drive more direct bookings through your booking engine.     Hotel Search overview Google has several travel-specific search experiences, they all appear on google.com/travel.Hotels’ information on prices and booking links are available across Google: Search engine, Maps, and others, each of which can reach over a billion users.  The goal of Google’s solutions is to help users make quick and effortless decisions during their travel research.  As for hotels, Google wants to provide a comprehensive list of lodging options with complete information: photos, reviews, and amenities. Google also provides tools to easily compare pricing and availability across various booking channels.    How do users search for hotels today?  There are 2 main ways users search for hotel information on Google. The first path is when users know the specific hotel they want to stay with and search directly for them.  Here is an example of Google Search for a specific hotel: On the left side of the page is a typical search result with text ads followed by organic search results.  The right side of the page contains a property details card which has information to help guests find your hotel’s direct website, phone number, and address. This is how your prospective and current guests find your hotel online.    Users compare prices and availability across booking channels Path 1: If users click on “Check Availability” If a user selects “check availability” it will send them to a more detailed pricing page. This allows users to check availability and compare pricing across various booking channels.  On top, there is Google Hotel Ads and below are labeled “all options” within a comprehensive view of all booking options; Google calls these options Free Booking Links. Path 2: Search for hotels at a specific Destination The second path users typically take is when they know their destination but not the specific hotel they want to stay in. Here is an example of search results for hotels in a specific market. The search results include text ads at the top of the page, above Google organic results. At the bottom of those ads results is the Google Travel section where users can quickly choose types of properties of interest to them. They can for example choose between luxury, budget or kid-friendly. Interacting with this section leads to Google Hotel Search tool.  Users are now taken to a full list of properties and advanced filters (dates available, amenities of interest, etc.).For every property Google provides a comprehensive set of content to help users make decisions during the booking process (photos, reviews, hotel availability, amenities, policy information,..).  The information is sourced from the property as well as other industry sources. Also, each property has free hotel information listed so your potential guests can find your hotel’s website, phone number, and address. Users regularly switch devices while travel planningMany of these functionalities are available on mobile. Mobile devices offer the same detailed information and tools. In the image above is a hotel list view, where the user can quickly scroll through various properties and sort or filter based on their personal preferences. Once they find the property they like they can click to see a details card about the property. The property card on mobile has the same setup as the desktop version.    Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) The Business Profile is a fundamental tool to the hotel search experience. Business Profiles help travel business owners manage their information and interact with potential customers across Google Search and Google Maps.   What is a Business Profile (Google My Business) ? Formerly known as Google My Business, Business Profile listings usually appear when users search for a business in Google Maps or Google Search. For instance, if a traveler types in the name of your hotel “hotel Balmoral” or “b&b hotel cholet nord”, hotel Business Profiles are displayed.Business Profiles appear on the right side of the Google Search Results page. If travelers have seen your Business Profile, they’ve already shown a real interest in your hotel. So it’s important to keep the information complete and accurate.  If you’re new to the Business Profile, here are 3 main steps you can take:Step 1: Create a Business Profile or manage an existing one.  Step 2: Manage your hotel’s business details and information. Step 3: Engage with customers by answering reviews and sharing updates.  In case you don’t have a listing yet, creating one should be very easy. You can visit Google.com to get started. You will be guided through the process of setting your business profile. Now that you have your Business Profile set up, it’s time to manage your hotel’s details. The easiest piece is adding your basic business information (address, hours of operation, phone number, and description). This content is important because Google will use that information to help match your property to the information provided by your connectivity partner.  As part of your profile, you can also manage amenities and photos. It’s important to add your hotel’s amenities to help customers know your business. You can select whether your property has free wi-fi, a parking lot, a bar, room service, and so on. Remember that travelers are using this information every day to make their booking decisions about their stay.    Mention health and safety attributes (Covid-19 updates) There is now a way for hoteliers to highlight their property health and safety measures. From enhanced cleaning procedures to contact-free check-in. Let users know what COVID-19 safety precaution you’re taking at your property. Also, make sure to keep users informed by communicating any temporary closures.    Use Insights to improve your Business Profile Business Profiles also offer insights into how users are finding your information on Google. How many people are calling your hotel? Or getting direction from your Business Profile? Insights show how people find your business on Google Search and Maps.   How to get your rates and availability visible to potential customers?  Google launched a feature named Free Booking Links, making it more accessible for all partners to surface their offerings to reach more customers. Free Booking links appear alongside paid ads when users look at a hotel. Google does not charge for placement or engagement of these links. For hotels and suppliers, this means a new freeway to reach potential customers and drive more direct bookings.  Free Booking Links are ranked using a variety of signals to determine which links are best to show users. Unlike ads, no one can pay more to get a better placement. By contrast, advertisers can bid to be ranked higher in the hotel ad section. Google clearly marks ads with the ads badge.  Free Booking Links offer a great way to expose your hotel direct channel to many Google users already researching your property. It’s a perfect way to drive direct bookings free of charge. Free Booking Links currently show up when travelers check out hotel prices and availability from Google and look at the details of a particular hotel.  To see them in the wild, search for a hotel and click on “check availability”. It will take you to a page listing all the partners that can sell rooms for that hotel.  You can check if your business uses Free Booking Links in 2 simple steps:Navigate to Google Travel, and type in your hotel’s name in the search bar. This user experience is designed to highlight your property and its data. It’s the most complete representation of your hotel on Google. Navigate to the prices tab and look for your hotel in the “all options” section, a Free Booking Link from the hotel will have the “Official Site” tag. When you click on it, it brings you to your hotel’s website with your official rates and availability. If your hotel is not on Free Booking Links, you need to work with a connectivity partner to send your real-time rates and availability to Google.   Conclusion  Potential customers are using Google every day to make decisions about where to stay. Hoteliers, you need to make your presence on Google a priority to drive more customers to your website and increase both online and offline bookings.  Now, you know how to use Google to drive more direct bookings to your hotel. If you have a project for your hotel, don’t hesitate to contact our team of hotel marketers. 

Nowadays, the majority of customers do their hotel research using the internet. This is the main reason why it is essential to have a hotel website to present your establishment in its best light. It must be easy to use, work in responsive design and be connected to your booking engine.  Why have a website for your hotel?  First, you should think of creating your hotel website as an investment and not just an expense. It is a real tool for sales, but also for notoriety.  Setting up your hotel website is also a way for your customers to be able to have all the information they need and to book from anywhere in the world, any day and at any time. what time independently.  Visibility of your establishment:   One of the main advantages of having a hotel website is to be accessible all the time and from everywhere. Your customers can consult it and find the answers to their questions about a product or service that interests them 24 hours a day, in several languages ​​and without you needing to mobilize one or more of your employees.    Notoriety of your hotel :  In the digital age, nothing goes unnoticed on the internet, hence the usefulness of creating a website for your hotel. By optimizing your notoriety on the Internet, you offer Internet users an opportunity to access important information about your establishment, descriptions of its activities, news, etc. You therefore interest potential customers.  Stand out from the competition: The design of your hotel website is a real supplement to your customer services. By adding, for example, a frequently asked questions section, your customers can quickly find the answers to their questions day and night.  No waiting time, information responding to all possible scenarios, by simplifying the life of your customers and, by improving the user experience, you stand out from all your competitors.     Description of the offer at any time:  In order not to lose any customers, any sales at any time whatsoever, it is of paramount importance to be present on the web, but also that your offers are available there at any time. This concerns both the availability of your rooms and your additional services such as the hotel’s spa or its restaurant.   Emancipate yourself from OTA’s: Since the Macron law, in France, hoteliers are free to define their pricing policies and offer a lower rate directly. It is essential to specify on the home and booking page of your hotel’s website that the Internet user is in front of the best possible rate to book a room in your establishment and therefore that he will not find cheaper elsewhere.  In this way, he will not be tempted to compare prices by going to OTA’s platforms.    Customer Database Building :  A customer database helps you improve customer retention and increase revenue and value for each customer. It is built by collecting, analyzing, organizing, reporting and sharing customer information.  A customer database can include contact information, past purchases, future needs, and any other information that can help meet your prospects’ expectations and desires.   Statistics: By using tools such as attendance statistics or online surveys, you have the opportunity to learn more about the tastes and desires of your customers.  You are therefore able to see the rooms and services that have the most success on your hotel website, as well as those that attract less attention.  This is an important advantage that allows you to improve your offer of products and services by better responding to the demands of your customers.    Increased credibility in the air of 2.0: Today and more and more, Internet users use search engines like Google to find a hotel and book it online and, if you are not there, that means that you don’t exist.  The simple fact of having your website considerably increases your notoriety, but also the user and customer experience, without forgetting to increase the share of direct reservations.    How to create a website for your hotel?  What is a CMS? A CMS is a content management system, or a “Content Management System” in English.  Its function is to facilitate the administration of a website. It offers a graphical interface to manage the contents of a site, so that content creators can work without the intervention of a developer. A CMS is easy to use and allows you to be more responsive by distributing content quickly.  A content management system offers several features such as a library to manage images, videos or pdfs. It allows user authentication with the assignment of permissions and support for multiple roles; content creation; the management of several languages; the ability to support content from multiple devices like smartphones or tablets.    Why choose a website creation agency specializing in the hotel industry?   An agency can answer all your questions in order to optimize your site, and this, in compliance with the new current standards. Your site is either developed by its in-house team, or based on a CMS. WIHP, a hotel website creation agency, has developed its own CMS to better take into account the needs of each hotel establishment. CMS is Using the WIHP simple, intuitive, and accessible to everyone.  There are several advantages to web design agency hotel. The accompaniment, having a reliable and quality product as well as an intuitive and easy-to-use web tool, but also optimized for SEO referencing, without forgetting the personalization of your website in the image of your hotel.   Any agency?  With over 800,000 different hotels on the planet, it is easy to imagine the diversity of players who share the market.  To begin with, there are three types of actors : independent hotels, integrated hotel chains and voluntary hotel chains, i.e. federations of independent hotels that have chosen to group together.  The products therefore sometimes differ widely from one establishment to another: room capacity, type of room, type of board, seasonality, cancellation conditions, other services offered by the establishment, etc. Service offers, etc.  The prices displayed may also vary from one distributor to another: negotiated prices, daily prices, promotions…  These are all these_ complexities of the hotel system which requires the use of a specialized agency such as WIHP, in the world of the hotel industry.    And after ? How to make your website visible? Improve your natural referencing, how and why?   The objective of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to attract as many visitors as possible to a site. It is possible to make a site visible to a target, because we can know the intention of the Internet user thanks to the request he types in the search engine.  A natural referencing strategy must include at least two phases: the SEO audit and regular optimization of your site.  The price of a natural referencing audit depends on many parameters: the size of the site, the objectives of the strategy and the elements analyzed.  Then comes the optimization phase, there the cost will depend on the actions to make your website visible on Google. WIHP can support you in this optimization work while taking into account the specificities of your hotel.    Generate bookings through paid advertising Advertising campaigns for hotels are a powerful tool for their online visibility.  The hotel appears on several search engines at the top of the list of results, which allows establishments to promote their name and services to Internet users and thus target a highly qualified audience, and therefore significantly increase the chances of converting these travelers into customers.  SEA (Search Engine Advertising) paid referencing makes it possible to appear in the form of an ad at the top of the page when an Internet user makes a request on a search engine. You display your hotel website directly to interested travelers. The more visible you are, the more likely your hotel website is to generate direct bookings.

Google has launched a beta version of premium Promoted Hotels ads, which it has now renamed Property Promotion Ads. With this solution redesign, Google now allows hoteliers to display their hotels in premium placements directly to potential travelers. If the ad bid is high enough, a hotel can appear on the first or second position on Google Maps.What exactly is Google Property Promotion Ads? Google Property Promotion Ads is an ad format created to help hoteliers place their hotels in strategic locations on Search. But they can also place their hotels in a specific location within a specific geographic area. This is an ideal solution for hotel owners who want to: bring more traffic to a selected geographic area, promote a new hotel, or capitalize on successful hotels during the peak season. For example, if a user searches for “Madrid hotels,” a hotel can use Property Promotion Ads to promote itself and encourage the user to book a stay with their hotel. Unlike traditional Google Hotel Ads, Google Property Promotion Ads allows hoteliers to offer their hotels to new customers who may not be searching for their hotel.  How is this different from Promoted Hotels?  Advertisers can choose which hotels they want to drive more traffic to and can use PPA ad groups to target those ad spaces. When users click on Property Promotion Ads, they are directed to an advertiser-exclusive sponsored tab, allowing partners to showcase different room rates and content with their own brand logo highlighted.How does Google Property Promotion Ads work?  As mentioned above, Property Promotion Ads is a type of ad that allows a hotel to be featured in the top positions of Google. Where are ads displayed in Google Property Promotion Ads?  Your ads are displayed in the Hotel Search section on Google. They will be displayed on desktop and mobile when users search for hotels. For example, when users enter “hotel New York,” they will see your ad displayed. On each search results page in this section, two Google Property Promotion Ads may be displayed.Depending on the amount of your bid, you can appear in the first or second section position on Google Maps. This means that you could get significant traffic! But don’t be surprised, this increased visibility can override your ROAS (Return on Ads Spent). What are the prerequisites for displaying your hotel on Google Property Promotion Ads? All hotels running campaigns on Google Ads can run campaigns worldwide. To run campaigns, a hotel must have: an active Hotel Center account associated with at least one Google Ads account; at least one active landing page in Hotel Center;  at least one hotel image approved for ads or provided by the advertiser.What types of bids are available?  The bids offered on Google Property Promotion Ads are the same bids as for Hotel campaigns: Manual CPC (cost-per-click bidding)  CPC percentage Commission per conversion Commission on guest stay  What are the benefits of using Google Property Promotion Ads for my hotel?  Property Promotion Ads allows hoteliers to increase traffic to their hotels by targeting users who know where they want to go, but not where they want to stay. Now, there are many users who know their destination, but not where they want to stay. You can now set up hotel promotion ads with specific budgets, bids, and strategies.  By using these hotel promotion ads, hoteliers can promote their hotels on the entire Google ecosystem (SERP, Google Maps and more).    Conclusion As you can see, Property Promotion Ads will allow you to increase your direct bookings. Google helps you gain visibility and show your hotel to undecided travelers. These campaigns allow you to convince travelers to stay at your hotel instead of your competitor’s. You can display your property in strategic Google locations that will help you to entice travelers to book with you and earn direct bookings. You can launch Google Property Promotion Ads campaigns with Meta I/O, our metasearch management solution. To find out more about this new type of campaign, please contact our team. 

Google have become an essential direct booking tool in the hotel’s marketing strategy. Potential customers are using Google every day to make decisions about where to stay. Understanding demand has never been this critical to reemerge stronger. Google Hotel Ads can be a great help to reach more travelers to your hotel’s website.    20 years of milestones Google has been working on improving its search results in travel since its inception. The first step can be traced back in 2000, with the launch of Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords), the famous advertising platform. Flash forward to 2019 and Expedia Group and Booking Holdings were investing a striking $11 billion on marketing, and mostly on Google Ads itself. In 2005, Google bought Where 2 Technologies, which became the foundation of Google Maps, while Street View was added in 2007, the same year of the launch of universal search, a crucial change in the way we discover and enjoy content (and hotels) online.  Before 2007, a standard Google search would only consist of ten organic links to websites and a few paid ads. After introducing universal search, however, a variety of sources started appearing in the search engine results pages, such as news, pictures, maps, and videos (it’s worth remembering that Google bought YouTube just the year before). With universal search, Marissa Mayer, former VP of search products and user experience, stated, “we’re attempting to break down the walls that traditionally separated our various search properties and integrate the vast amounts of information available into one simple set of search results.” In 2009, Google launched the grandfather of Google Business Profile, which will play a significant role in the hotel distribution landscape later: Google Places, followed in 2011 by the introduction of Hotel Finder and Google Hotel Ads (formerly known as Hotel Price Ads, or HPA). It’s worth remembering the, now discontinued, 2016 travel app, Trips, as some of its contents went into the creation of google.com/travel in 2019. In 2016, Google introduced Book On Google and the Room Booking Module, allowing guests to book their rooms in one click and hotels without good mobile experiences to receive bookings on mobile. In more recent years, according to a study by one of the major reputation management tools, in 2019, Google became the most used hotel review website. In 2020, Google migrated the Pay-Per-Stay (PPS) model for hotels directly on Google Ads, a bidding strategy allowing hotels to pay for a Hotel Ads click only AFTER the guest stay has actually occurred, removing any risk of cancellation, particularly high during the first wave of lockdowns in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same year, Google even removed the minimum commission of 10% to use this option.   Helping you drive more direct bookings Thanks to such a suite of features, Google is now able to help hoteliers find potential travelers at each micro-moment, from top (I-want-to-get-away) to mid (Time-to-make-a-plan), to bottom-funnel (Let’s-book-it), together with the experience itself (Can’t-wait-to-explore). In a solid marketing strategy, therefore, Google can be used either as a brand awareness platform, as a source of incremental revenue, or as a channel shift from OTAs. Especially for the latter scenario, Google Hotel Ads remains one of the most reliable advertising arrows in one’s quiver, thanks to one of the highest ROAS when compared to more canonical advertising platforms. Surprisingly, however, most hoteliers have not yet addressed the proverbial elephant in the room and keep underestimating the (huge) potential of the platform.   Here at WIHP with our metasearch manager Meta I/O, we analyzed thousands of clients investing in Google Hotel Ads, in order to recognize patterns and find possible fluctuations in spending, ROAS and conversion rate.  The data set is composed of 20% of independent properties and 80% of groups and chains, located all over the world. Get your full copy of our guide “How To Generate more bookings with Google Hotel Ads via Meta I/O” below:

Meta Searchers find their information using multiple search engines comparing hotels and hotel room rates, as opposed to Online Tourism Agencies (OTAs) like Booking or Expedia. In the hotel industry, this refers to price comparison sites. Their supposed action is therefore to offer a summary of searches sorted according to the search criteria requested.Definition of Meta Search Generally remunerated at Cost Per Click (CPC), Meta Search are flexible and effective marketing tools allowing hoteliers to obtain reservations directly on their site, in order to avoid the costs linked to the commissions levied by OTAs. It is important to know that when a reservation is made by Booking.com, Expedia or other, it costs on average 20% at the hotel. This fairly high commission therefore motivates hoteliers to avoid it in order to increase their margins. Apart from Google Hotel Ads which adopts either a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), Commission, or CPC system, the vast majority of other Metasearch are CPC based.How does Metasearch work? Aside from Google Hotel Ads which is either CPA, Commission, or CPC based, all the others are overwhelmingly Cost Per Click. The hotelier only pays if the link to his booking engine is clicked by the Internet user. He must therefore adhere to their subscription and payment method programs. Be aware all the same for information that an independent hotelier alone cannot technically connect to it. He must either use his Channel Manager (D-Edge, Availpro, SiteMinder, etc.), or go through operators specializing in Meta Engines such as WIHP, who have installed the necessary data exchange connectors such as room availability, prices with and without taxes, and other variable information.What are Meta Searches for your hotel? Meta Searches are, like OTAs, an additional distribution channel and a means of recruiting and acquiring new customers. The Meta Engines complete the offer and position themselves as an additional showcase, but also as sources of traffic, even if the market share at the world level of the two main OTAs, Booking and Expedia, is around 70%. Namely that some of them are closely affiliated with the OTAs themselves. For example, Trivago is part of the Expedia group and Kayak of the Priceline group which also owns Booking.Manage and drive Meta Search to make it a profitable acquisition channel? Have an optimized booking engine Even if it goes without saying, it is good to remember it. First of all, and before thinking about acquiring direct bookings on your hotel website, make sure you have a booking engine that is well suited to bookings on mobiles or tablets (Responsive), whether it is simple to use and that your users do not encounter any technical difficulties. If metasearch can almost close the sale, you must not forget that your booking engine is the last page that the Internet user sees before deciding. It is therefore, of course, necessary or even essential that the user experience be optimal. Connect to metasearch Insofar as you do not yet use with Meta Search, you should know that to create the connection between your establishment and the price comparison sites, you need to use the services of an integration partner specialized in the field such as WIHP and its Meta IO solution. CPC and viewability rate, a combo to watch As mentioned earlier, the majority of Meta Search uses a cost-per-click compensation system. This means that each time a user clicks on your rate offer to arrive on your hotel website, this has a cost for your hotel. Also note that you can change this CPC at any time. The impression rate, which could be translated as visibility rate, refers to the number of times your offer is visible when a user searches for the name of your hotel. If we take the example of Google Hotel Ads, by default it only shows four price offers when searching for the name of a hotel. In other words, the higher the chosen CPC, the higher you will appear in the results. Important metric at Google, but that we can also find at all other Meta Search. Meta Search and CPA Currently, only Google Hotel Ads and Trivago offer cost per acquisition. With the CPA, you pay money only in the event of a reservation being made, as with an OTA. The advantage is that the prices are flexible and, on average, it is less than 10% in fees, compared to 20% for OTAs. Less interesting than a highly optimized CPC strategy, but simpler and safer. CPA is generally used in two situations: the first is that of the hotel which does not necessarily have the budget to use an agency that manages its Meta Search campaigns, and the second, that where, after a strategy launch CPC, ROAS (return on investment) is not enough. When a CPC strategy becomes more expensive than a CPA, we turn to CPA for guaranteed returns on investment. Don’t Get Jealous: Open All Channels It is important to get started on all Meta Searches, starting with the most important ones, which are Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor and Trivago. But you don’t just have to limit yourself to them. Indeed, neglecting Skyscanner, Kayak or Bing Hotel Ads would be a mistake. These metasearches make it possible to acquire another clientele which it would be a shame to deprive yourself of.Metasearch: an essential acquisition channel for hoteliers Hoteliers can get direct bookings with minimum commissions using Meta Search and hotel marketing. Meta Searches are now a simple approach to vary your distribution channels and thus increase your volume of reservations and your turnover. If you want to set up metasearches, do not hesitate to contact our teams at WIHP.

How do you choose the service provider who knows how to present your hotel’s website in the best light and make it generate at least 20% of your online bookings? Which web agency should you entrust with the mission of reducing your OTA commissions by 5 to 10%? Did you know that 52% of customers who have selected your hotel on an OTA platform also go directly to your hotel’s website? To increase your turnover, your website is therefore undoubtedly a decisive tool in your digital strategy.Is choosing a web agency specializing in the hotel industry mandatory? Should you choose a web agency specializing in the hotel industry? The answer is yes ! Even if the development aspect is a very important condition for using an “up to date” technology offering a well-referenced hotel website where navigation is intuitive, fast and fluid for a better experience, it is not sufficient on its own. only. In web marketing, it is necessary to know the market concerned perfectly, to have benchmarked it well and to have all the information on the behavior of Internet users concerning this market. WIHP is the specialist in website creation for hotels.Check the references of the hotel website creation agency Of course, a website for an independent hotel, an SME or for a hotel group are made differently and that is why it is important to select a web agency that perfectly masters the ins and outs of the hotel industry. . Most of the time, agencies specialize in a type of structure such as a VSE, SME or even a large group, but also in specific sectors of activity. Do not hesitate to ask the agencies for practical examples. Ask to see the hospitality websites they have created. This will give you an overview of his skills. Also take the time to consult the customer reviews available on the internet. Some agencies clearly put customer satisfaction at the heart of their values ​​and have certified reviews on platforms like Trustpilot, or even customer testimonials on their Google My Business page, so much information that can enlighten you on their skills.Write specifications that are as precise as possible   The specifications are your basic tool for choosing the right web agency for you. It is a document clearly and rigorously summarizing your expectations and objectives, in a precise and concrete way. Similarly, it allows the agencies you have selected to offer you a tailor-made quote, to best build your project. Your specifications will also be a real roadmap and a guarantee of quality to which you can refer throughout the construction of the pages of the site to assess compliance with your initial needs. Here are the main elements to include in your specifications: First, it must make a precise description of your activity. Take the time to explain to the agency your precise and complete vision of what your hotel establishment offers its customers. Describe in detail your offer, your target of potential customers, but also your main values ​​and your commitments if you have already defined them. All these elements frame your project, in particular to create a hotel website that is truly adapted to your establishment. In the previous step, you identified the specific objectives of your web project. Explain them as clearly as possible in your specifications, ranking them in order of priority if necessary. Define the scope of your project: a web agency takes care of the creation or renovation of your website, also remember to include other very concrete elements in your specifications, such as taking charge of its security as well as its daily maintenance if you have decided or cannot take care of it yourself. If you already have a logo, a graphic charter, brochures or even a slogan for your hotel, the specifications must show them, because these are essential elements that will be used by your web agency. All of these elements are useful for the experts in front of you, to be able to determine what they need to support in the design of the site or in your online communication strategy. Define the constraints, whether in terms of time or budget. Specify the date on which you want your site to be online if you have planned it in advance. Also indicate if you have a specific monthly budget for your hotel digital marketing campaigns. Cite examples of sites that you appreciate, to inspire your web agency, and help it to propose a suitable offer, do not hesitate to feed it from sources that you find relevant. A reputable agency will never offer you a pure copy, but taking inspiration from an idea and adapting it to your establishment could be a good solution.Define the deadlines for creating a hotel website Your agency must make commitments regarding the creation time. The average time that can be seen for a website to be online is between two and four months. But be careful, you must be a responsive and involved hotelier in your project, remember that this is a collaborative effort in which you are the conductor. Your response time to questions and proposals should ideally not exceed two to three days.Ask how your content management works When you entrust the creation of your hotel website to an agency, keep in mind that you may one day take control of the tools used, or that you will have to pass them on to another service provider or even to the buyer of your establishment. . For all these reasons, it is imperative to check which authoring tool your agency uses. The name of this tool is Content Management System (CMS). The majority of website creation providers use CMS like WordPress or Prestashop. Some have created their own tool. WIHP provides you with a simple, clear tool in line with the specificities of the hotel industry, such as connection to the booking engine. The CMS used for your website must be quite intuitive, easy to use and allow a sufficiently fine customization of your pages. Get trained by your web agency at least in the basics of the chosen site creation software and also ask them to have access to it, at least as an editor. You must be able to integrate content yourself or add elements whenever you want.Choose your hotel web agency To meet consumer expectations, have good visibility and a good brand image with your website, it is essential to choose the right hotel web agency. Whether you are an independent hotel or not, your digital strategy, like your social networks, will depend on a good customer experience, with the certainty of an increase in turnover and a reduction in your commissions for OTAs.